Christmas Get-Together
We were delighted to host our first event on Saturday 12th December, when Santa, after a lot of persuasive phone calls to the North Pole, eventually decided to stop the rain. The break in the rain came around 3pm, which allowed us the opportunity to erect and decorate the gazebo kindly supplied by resident Dave O’Loughlin’s company, ‘Prop me up’.
Residents started arriving at 4pm. Mulled wine, mince pies and treats for the kids were laid on by Lynam’s. The Farmhill Restaurant also provided tasty surprises that didn’t last long!
Santa switched on the lights at about 4.30pm. He has since apologised for not waiting for the countdown as planned, but he was so busy getting all the presents ready for Christmas Eve he couldn’t hang about!
Not to be outdone, the Gardaí arrived shortly after, siren blaring and lights flashing! The kids had a great time sitting in the car and trying on a Garda cap! Thanks to the Community Guard for the high visibility jackets handed out to the kids. We will meet them again in January (date to be decided) to hear their advice in relation to the Neighbourhood Watch scheme we have initiated. So far we’ve had a very positive response rate of 75% from 360 households in favour of setting up the scheme.
We estimate around 130 people came along and enjoyed the chance to meet old friends and new. We were delighted with the turnout, and the lively atmosphere, which augurs well for future events. We were also delighted with the response of residents to our collection for the homeless. This generated €443.84 for the Peter McVerry Trust.